European Tour - Scottish Open

There's little doubt that the Scottish Open is one of the most important events on the ET calendar outside the majors&WGCs. Last year's move of venue from Loch Lomond (after hosting the event for 15 consecutive years) to Castle Stuart received mainly good reviews, although there have been reservations expressed as well. There is a change in the title sponsor this year, and I think the organisers may feel quite happy at the moment that the previous deal with Barclays came to an end after last year's event.

Over the past few weeks I've been keeping an eye on the recent field strength history of the ET events, and to that extent it is quite interesting to have a look at the Scottish Open in comparison with some of the other events taking place around this time of the year. Apart from showing that this event has had the strongest field from all those European events, it also shows that it's been by far the most consistent/constant in that respect. And that's probably to be expected considering its strategic position in space and time...

Spoiler:

...although a slight warning should be raised perhaps as this year the OWGR field strength (looking to be 48 pts to the winner and quite close to the 46 pts bracket) is at its weakest level since the year 2000.

Luke Donald is the defending champion and apart from trying to defend his title, he will also celebrate his 52nd week as world number 1, placing him now at no. 5 amongst those with most weeks at the top of the ranks (Woods, Norman, Faldo and Ballesteros are the only ones ahead of him). The Scottish challenge should be very strong this week, with Martin Laird and Paul Lawrie the obvious two leading contenders. I wonder though if Paul Lawrie's rather controversial decision to skip the US Open and concentrate on ET events hasn't put more pressure on him then he would've liked lately to perforrm, and if so, there's likely to be even more pressure on him to do well in his home event... we'll see how he can cope with all that...

From this side of the water I'm expecting and hoping Harrington and McDowell to be in contention, but also wouldn't be surprised to see a couple of Italians doing well here (Molinari, Gagli, Matteo)... Anders Hansen is having a great start early this morning with birdies at each of the first 4 holes, with Franny following close by (he appears to be in tremendous form the last couple of weeks). Padraig, Stenson, Jaidee, Matteo and Marcel are also among the good starters early on, with Stephen Gallacher leading the home charge. As for Paul Casey... , I really think he needs to take a (loooooong) break....

Flying start from Padraig!! I don't think GMAC is in the field Prince!!

Also regarding Casey and a break I think the total opposite he needs to just play and play non stop until his form turns and if it doesn't well then we have another Cambo or Duval case on our hands without a major victory that is.

Wow! Franny just birdied the last 5 holes on the back nine (his first 9 today) and leading at 6-under after 9 holes. He's gonna be hard to beat at this rate...

Cheers sirb, of course GMac is not here , I think I was already writing my predictions for the Open there... need to get another coffee...

Yeah, he would be a good bet next week at the Open, seems like a tricky test going by the card and there seems to be a lot of bunkers even by links standard!?

Being the man with in-depth knowledge of the rankings where would a win take Harrington this week in the rankings?

And before you know it, Luke is up at 3-under already...

Harri could jump as high as #36 with a win this week, Franny as high as #16 and in case jp is watching from Copenhagen, Hansen could move as high as #32...

Bucket of water for Franny! Par 5 and short par 4 3rd are next!

Attended this event last year on the first day and got very bad sunburn!! Was so disappointing to see it disrupted after that. Very much looking forward to watching some of this later. Sadly the drop in prize money looks to have impacted on the quality of the field. Some support for the event from guys like Westwood and GMac, a previous winner, would have helped the cause to reinstate a top sponsor.

Manny backing up the Italian assault. Gagli there or thereabouts - the man likes links golf in July I'm telling you.

Thanks dark prince, nice write-up.
I wonder why it was felt necessary to de-lochinate this event last year, and is the tournament to stay at Castle Stuart for the foreseeable future?

PS: hope Harro saves his best play for next week!

A win wouldn't be too shabby this week for playing at the Bridgestone and playing his way into the Ryder Cup but yeah I would prefer he plays well next week and a win next week would take care of it all!

is the course playing very easy this morning?
was LW due to play before his injury or was he always due the week off?
seems like alot of players have had their bluff called. didnt play in loch lomond cos it apparently wasnt a links and now it has changed they still arent playing

molinari is 60/1 for the open! great value! imagine hes gonna be slashed pretty quick if he keeps this form up

jeez Molinari is ablaze! 10 under with 3 holes to go!!

I backed Federico Columbo at 350/1 so here's hoping the Italians can have a good week. Saw the young lad putt tremendously well last week in Paris so stuck a £1 e/w on him.

Columbo? He's got no FALK-in chance

super_realist wrote:Columbo? He's got no FALK-in chance

Weyhey!

Great to see the top Golfers playing well, seems we haven't seen enough of that recently, either side of the lake.

Lowry doing well. Wonder if he's owned up to causing the landslide last year.....

Leave Shane alone, there are several fatter golfers than him

heard about molinari!!

10 under through 15 or something

Donald normally has a quiet 1st round and steadily builds.

Very ominous that he shot -5 on the opening day. Molinari is on fire but I wouldn't bet against Luke defending his title.

I'd rather him not regain it though as we all know not many win back to back tournaments and I'll be rooting for him and Westy at Lytham.

i dont want donald to win this - its abit likr the par 3 at the masters, but after the 5 under he is a big fav in my eyes, he has an almost garanteed a good final round everywhere- so being where he is positioned he is the man to beat- he just gets better and better as tournies go on

incontinentia wrote:Leave Shane alone, there are several fatter golfers than him

There shouldn't be any fat golfers.

super_realist wrote:There shouldn't be any fat golfers.

why?

If your good enough your thin enough- but fact is we wont get any greats that are overweight anymore- These lardy lumps need to get better conditioned as it will prolong there carrers and give them a better all round game

mystiroakey wrote:i dont want donald to win this - its abit likr the par 3 at the masters, but after the 5 under he is a big fav in my eyes, he has an almost garanteed a good final round everywhere- so being where he is positioned he is the man to beat- he just gets better and better as tournies go on

He's admitted himself he gets himself all worked up at Majors and puts way too much pressure on himself. Some may see that as him bottling it for the big ones and it may be the case. It's almost like he cares too much (about the majors) and he plays better when he's competing in the lesser known tournaments.

It's what's stopping himself from being considered great which is a shame as he is a great golfer in my eyes and doesn't get the press he deserves especially in England who seem to fawn more over Rory and Tiger than one of their own.

he keeps shooting poor scores first round in majors.


Time for him to step up first round and get in the mix for once!!

rather than being almost last after round one and then clawing himself into a top 20 position come major end!!

Just heard on talk sport that he has eating with ronnie corbet the other day and kylie was there and she didnt have a scooby who he was-- poor luke!!

Yeah him and Kylie sat next to each other at Wimbledon and until Kylie's fella told her who she was she was clueless. Quite funny.

Would be very interesting to see how he copes with the pressure IF he does find himself in contention going into the weekend.

Cannot wait for The Open. Have a pass for the week so i'll try and report back on any gossip during the practice days.

mystiroakey wrote:he keeps shooting poor scores first round in majors.


Time for him to step up first round and get in the mix for once!!

rather than being almost last after round one and then clawing himself into a top 20 position come major end!!

Just heard on talk sport that he has eating with ronnie corbet the other day and kylie was there and she didnt have a scooby who he was-- poor luke!!

Were they all sitting in high chairs at the table?

Emma....that's funny.
Ronnie lives in the same village as my mum and I used to see him driving a Roller, he more or less peered through the steering wheel.
Really nice 'ordinary' couple though.

Doon I know where your mum lives

I used to caddy for him and his chums.. And lived around the corner.

The course he is a member of is decent

Does anybody know if montgomerie will be at the open or not?

incontinentia wrote:

super_realist wrote:There shouldn't be any fat golfers.

why?

There is no reason why there should be any fat people actually , it's totally unessessary and purely down to self control.
Certainly there is no excuse for sportsmen to be overweight, especially to Lowry's level.

Seve_The_Great wrote:Does anybody know if montgomerie will be at the open or not?

Nope! Not in the field anyway...

princedracula wrote:

Seve_The_Great wrote:Does anybody know if montgomerie will be at the open or not?

Nope! Not in the field anyway...

That's a shame i always enjoy watching him play live. Thanks anyway

super_realist wrote:There is no reason why there should be any fat people actually , it's totally unessessary and purely down to self control.
Certainly there is no excuse for sportsmen to be overweight, especially to Lowry's level.

Actually, that's not true but people with genetics which mean they'll tend to being truly fat aren't too common.

Misti.
His Scottish or English home?

oh i didnt know he ever lived in scotland- he has a place in addington(poshest part of croydon)- not to be confused with new addington(worst part)

I think that percentage would be absolutely minimal navy, certainly a minuscule to the number of idle people who claim their genetics are behind their gluttony.

Looks like Lefty is not enjoying the Scottish hills without Barclays... Poor day for John Rollins as well, but I'd be probably more worried for Paul Lawrie, could he really miss the cut here? That'll be a bit of a disaster... Thomas Bjorn is another one who seems to go through a bad patch, but none of those are as bad as poor Casey...

Freddy Jac has the best result from those travelling from the PGA Tour, with decent rounds from Laird and Na. And finally a good round from Kaymer for a change, but just a bit dissappointed with Padraig's result after a very promissing start...

Not sure what's the forecast for tomorrow there, but I'd expect them to toughen up the course setup a bit, considering all those very low scores today...

Prince...they are quite happy to have low scores there.

Doon

Do you think they wanted them as low as 62?

I did not get a chance to see more than a few shots of the coverage so just wondering what the ground conditions were like? Was it fast and firm like you would expect from a links or has the recent rain made it the usual target golf stuff?

super_realist wrote:I think that percentage would be absolutely minimal navy, certainly a minuscule to the number of idle people who claim their genetics are behind their gluttony.

True. I was just being picky I have to admit!

McLaren wrote:Doon

Do you think they wanted them as low as 62?...

I'd hope not. Not sure it's a sufficient test for them really given the scoring.

They had a 63 at Muirfield.
St Andrews has had many scores in the low 60's

Doon, even some of my club members have shot sub 65 on the old course. in fact a guy in my spring prizes last year needed to finish par par for a 63.

Way to easy and incapable of producing drama without wind.

navyblueshorts wrote:

McLaren wrote:Doon

Do you think they wanted them as low as 62?...

I'd hope not. Not sure it's a sufficient test for them really given the scoring.

If it's windy on the weekend, and then they are struggling to break 80, it'll be too tough a test. Sometimes the organisers just can't win.

It didn't look too fiery yesterday. I watched for a while, and there was some run on the ball, but not too much. The rough was a bit tougher than last year, and the fairways a bit narrower. The greens looked fairly firm to pitch to, but fairly slow to putt on, so easy to give every putt a run at the hole.

Take the point re. wind and organisers not being able to win. I guess it's the nature of that type of golf, especially when there isn't much run, the greens are softer than typical etc. Wish I could shoot 62.....

"Wish I could shoot 62....."

Just play 9 holes.

I do love the fact it is on a links these days- i wish we had about 5 links tournies a year in fairness.. My 3 fav courses i have played are links courses.

Mine too Oakey.
Carnoustie, Dornoch and Kingsbarns.

I have never played a scottish course- so i must get up there!!

My favs are both courses at Ballybunion and Royal st georges